Quentin Tarantino on Django Unchained and the Problem with ‘Roots’

The lack of a respectable film
detailing the impact of slavery on this country fascinated both die-hard
film buffs. Eventually both men—who met on the set of Jackie Brown
in 1997—became obsessed with the idea of crafting a no-nonsense,
somewhat entertaining film detailing the lesser known aspects of
slavery. After one conversation with Hudlin stuck in his mind, Tarantino
went to work on an all-or-nothing script. Six months later, ­Django Unchained was born.

Set in the South just two years before the Civil War, Django Unchained (in
theaters Dec. 25) somehow masterfully manages to present the haunting
brutality of slavery while also infusing an outlandish humor only
Tarantino could bring to the big screen. Moviegoers will be treated to
the often controversial director’s deep love for the spaghetti western
genre along with a blazing narrative of one man’s desire for vengeance
and love. After being freed by a German bounty hunter, Django (Jamie
Foxx) helps him track down a few bad guys for profit and then goes on a
mission to find and free his enslaved wife (Kerry Washington).

“I
was always amazed so many Western films could get away with not dealing
with slavery at all,” says Tarantino, sitting in Todd-AO studios in Los
Angeles where he was attempting to whittle the film to under three
hours just after Thanksgiving. “Hollywood didn’t want to deal with it
because it was too ugly and too messy. But how can you ignore such a
huge part of American history when telling a story in that time period?
It made no sense.”

It didn’t make much sense to Hudlin either. The director of the popular ’90s films House Party and Boomerang says
he was baffled by the sugarcoated and abbreviated tales. “I hated all
those films about slavery over the years. Any time Hollywood did deem it
OK to talk about slavery, they were not worth watching,” says Hudlin,
who is Django Unchained’s executive producer. “My idea of a great slave movie was Spartacus.
Until African-American slavery was treated in that same manner, I had
no interest in hearing what Hollywood had to say about the issue.”

With
only two years of age separating Tarantino and Hudlin, they watched the
same slavery-themed films as young kids—and then grew to hate them as
adults. Titles such as Mandingo and ­Uncle Tom’s Cabin roll off their tongues with joint eye rolls and audible sighs. The not­able period film Glory,
starring Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman as freed slaves serving
in the U.S. Army, gets an honorable mention nod from Hudlin.

“I liked the black characters in Glory,”
says Hudlin, whose great-grandfather was a conductor on the Underground
Railroad. “Didn’t see the point of the white ones. The true story was
the slaves in the film. They should have been the main ­focal point of
the entire plot. But somehow no one figured that out.”

The faults of Glory aside, not much compares to the anger both men harbor toward the landmark television miniseries Roots. Written by Alex Haley and hailed in 1977 for telling the “complete” story of slavery, Roots remains
the third most-watched miniseries of all time. It is also still
considered the definitive mainstream portrait of slavery in the U.S.

When you look at ‘Roots,’ nothing about
it rings true in the storytelling, and none of the performances ring
true for me either…“I didn’t see it when it first came on, but when I did I
couldn’t get over how oversimplified they made everything about that
time. It didn’t move me because it claimed to be something it wasn’t.””

While many white directors might
shy away from criticizing such an iconic symbol of African-American
culture, ­Tarantino doesn’t hold back. He’s confident in his knowledge
of a time and subject most people know little about and would rather
forget. He was also savvy enough to bring Hudlin on board. “There were
times when I’d be filming a scene and really getting into it and Reg
would just say, ‘Hey is this the story you wanted to tell?’ He’d bring
the focus back if I got too carried away.”

One thing both men agreed on was a scene in Roots that served as an example of what not to do in Django Unchained.
The last act of the final episode features the character Chicken George
being given the opportunity to beat his slave master and owner in much
the same way he’d been punished and tormented. In the end the character
chooses not to so he can be “the bigger man.”

Bulls--t,”
exclaim both Tarantino and Hudlin in unison as they discuss the
absurdity of the scene. “No way he becomes the bigger man at that
moment,” says Tarantino. “The powers that be during the ’70s didn’t want
to send the message of revenge to African-Americans. They didn’t want
to give black people any ideas. But anyone knows that would never happen
in that situation. And in Django ­Unchained we make that clear.”

Tarantino
recalls a memorable scene where Jamie Foxx’s character is also given
the opportunity to beat his former owner after he becomes a free man.
“It was an emotional day on set and everyone was talking about how
brutal it was because he beats the white off of his captor,” says
Tarantino unapologetically. “There was no way that wasn’t going to be a
part of the movie.”

Foxx
shines as a man driven to punish those who tortured him, while also
yearning for his wife, who was sold to another plantation years before.
“It’s really important that this story is also a love story about a
black man and a black woman,” says Hudlin. “In the midst of all the
horrible things going on during that time, this man was in love and
wanted his wife back. You don’t see black men in love too much on the
big screen in slavery days, or modern times either.”

In
a film already full of twists (not to mention costars Samuel L. Jackson
and Christoph Waltz), Leonardo DiCaprio throws the ultimate punch
portraying the young, handsome, rich plantation owner Calvin Candie. He
owns Candyland plantation, where Django’s wife is being held, and
thrives on the suffering he causes. The role is a marked departure for
DiCaprio, who has spoken about how difficult the subject matter was to
read, act, and convey on the big screen.

“He
really embodied that entitled young male character perfectly,” says
Tarantino. “His grandfather owned and made the plantation successful and
his father kept it going in the movie. But DiCaprio’s character is just
this kid who’s done nothing for the life he’s living. He’s living it up
all the way with his decadence and greed, with no concern for how he
got it.”

But neither an A-list cast nor ­Tarantino’s past box office hits will be enough to save Django Unchained
if moviegoers decide not to support a film that focuses so intensely on
one of America’s darkest hours. Slavery is a subject both black and
white audiences tend to avoid in theaters. Yet Tarantino and Hudlin say
the timing for Django Unchained couldn’t be better.

“The
dynamics of the country are changing and people are talking about
that,” says Tarantino. “This time in history is a part of that
conversation, and I love that we’re out there talking about it in the
middle of the other films about Lincoln and whoever. I may take flak but
I always do on some level with my work. Wouldn’t be a Tarantino film
without some flak and criticism. I bet anyone who sees the film won’t be
able to forget it—and that’s the point.”

<<“I liked the black characters in Glory,”
says Hudlin, whose great-grandfather was a conductor on the Underground
Railroad. “Didn’t see the point of the white ones. The true story was
the slaves in the film. They should have been the main ­focal point of
the entire plot. But somehow no one figured that out.”>>

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